Estate planning at UNIFY
How to protect 20 UNIFY accounts — manage beneficiaries online, fund a trust in-branch, and file death claims
Brand change
UNIFY Financial Credit Union merged into CommunityAmerica Credit Union effective November 1, 2025, with CommunityAmerica the surviving entity. The systems conversion is now dated: UNIFY publishes a Conversion Weekend of July 31 through August 3, 2026, and states that "your new CommunityAmerica banking experience begins Monday, August 3." Estate impact: an executor settling a UNIFY account on or after August 3, 2026 should expect to work with CommunityAmerica, under CommunityAmerica account numbers, cards, and digital banking. UNIFY branches and ATMs began carrying the CommunityAmerica logo ahead of that date. Merger updates are published at https://www.unifyfcu.com/forward. Bring the certified death certificate and Letters to whichever brand is answering; the account history carries over. Effective November 2025.
UNIFY is now part of CommunityAmerica. The procedures below reflect UNIFY's accounts during the transition. View the CommunityAmerica estate planning page.
Contact Center
Phone310-381-2300
Toll-Free877-254-9328
Mailing Address
UNIFY Financial Credit Union, PO Box 10018, Manhattan Beach, CA 90267-7518
Automated Telephone Banking
Loan Payments (English)
Loan Payments (Spanish)
WebsiteLearn more→
Contact Center
Phone310-381-2300
Toll-Free877-254-9328
Mailing Address
UNIFY Financial Credit Union, PO Box 10018, Manhattan Beach, CA 90267-7518
Automated Telephone Banking
Loan Payments (English)
Loan Payments (Spanish)
WebsiteLearn more→
Member Services (Contact Center)
Phone310-381-2300
Toll-Free877-254-9328
Mailing Address
UNIFY Financial Credit Union, PO Box 10018, Manhattan Beach, CA 90267-7518 (overnight and courier: UNIFY Financial Credit Union, Attn: Operations Services, 2305B West 190th Street, Torrance, CA 90504)
WebsiteNotify online→
Verified Jul 2026
UNIFY offers 20 accounts, each with its own rules for what happens when a member dies. As a membership-based credit union, UNIFY headquartered in Torrance, California; brand converting to CommunityAmerica on August 3, 2026. Branch locations in Southern California (Torrance, Hawthorne, Westchester, Glendale, Montebello, Lakewood, Redondo Beach, Camarillo, Ventura, Huntington Beach, Santa Ana, Tustin), Northern California (Oakland, Concord, Brentwood), Texas (Plano/Allen), Arkansas (Bentonville, Fayetteville, Lowell, Rogers, Siloam Springs, Springdale), Nevada (Las Vegas), Arizona (Mesa), and West Virginia (Buffalo). UNIFY merged into CommunityAmerica Credit Union effective November 1, 2025; Conversion Weekend is July 31 through August 3, 2026, after which members bank as CommunityAmerica with access to the combined branch network. National membership eligibility through employer partners (aerospace, defense, technology, education), community affiliations, and Friends of Hobbs membership. Access to 5,000+ CO-OP Shared Branches and 100,000+ surcharge-free ATMs nationwide. Some transfer automatically to a named beneficiary, others can be held in a trust, and a few may require probate if no plan is in place.
UNIFY lets account holders update beneficiary designations online, in branch, by mail, and by phone, typically taking 15-30 minutes in branch. Trust funding is also available, allowing families to retitle accounts into the name of a revocable living trust.
There are two sides to estate planning at UNIFY: setting things up while you're alive, and the process survivors follow after a death.
Preparing your estate
Beneficiaries and trust funding
How to manage beneficiaries online, fund a trust in-branch, and review 20 account types at UNIFY.
View details →When someone dies
Death claim process
5-step process, 5 required documents, and contact information for survivors.
View details →Frequently asked questions
No. UNIFY's account agreement is explicit that a POD or trust beneficiary/payee designation does not apply to Individual Retirement Accounts. IRA beneficiaries have to be named on the IRA itself, on the IRA application or a beneficiary update form, and they are governed by IRS distribution rules rather than by state POD law. This is the single most common gap at a credit union: a member updates the POD line on the savings and checking accounts and assumes the IRA followed. It did not. UNIFY IRAs also cannot be retitled into a living trust; a trust can only be named as the IRA beneficiary.
Trust accounts are opened at a branch, not online. UNIFY publishes a Certification of Trust and Application Agreement (https://trabian-canvas-prd-files.s3.amazonaws.com/unifyfcu-com/files/document/certification_trust_agreement.pdf) and accepts either the full trust agreement or a Certificate of Trust, along with photo ID for each trustee and the trust's EIN (a revocable trust may use the grantor's SSN). Existing accounts often have to be closed and reopened in the trust's name. At least one trustee must be eligible for UNIFY membership, and a $1 membership share must stay open. Deposit accounts, certificates, and money market accounts can all be held in the trust's name; IRAs cannot.
Sources
Data sourced from UNIFY primary sources (16 pages reviewed). How we research.
Contact Center
Phone310-381-2300
Toll-Free877-254-9328
Mailing Address
UNIFY Financial Credit Union, PO Box 10018, Manhattan Beach, CA 90267-7518
Automated Telephone Banking
Loan Payments (English)
Loan Payments (Spanish)
WebsiteLearn more→
Contact Center
Phone310-381-2300
Toll-Free877-254-9328
Mailing Address
UNIFY Financial Credit Union, PO Box 10018, Manhattan Beach, CA 90267-7518
Automated Telephone Banking
Loan Payments (English)
Loan Payments (Spanish)
WebsiteLearn more→
Member Services (Contact Center)
Phone310-381-2300
Toll-Free877-254-9328
Mailing Address
UNIFY Financial Credit Union, PO Box 10018, Manhattan Beach, CA 90267-7518 (overnight and courier: UNIFY Financial Credit Union, Attn: Operations Services, 2305B West 190th Street, Torrance, CA 90504)
WebsiteNotify online→
Verified Jul 2026
Estate planning articles
Learn how to protect your UNIFY accounts and other assets with trusts, beneficiary designations, and estate planning documents.
